Category: Correspondents Desks

Categories
Correspondents Desks

Violent Care: Indigenous Children in Australia’s Social Work Systems

By Abby Winterich-Knox, Safa Tonuzi, Chrissy Stamey, and Lucien Noël

Introduction

In the aftermath of colonialism, aboriginal communities in Australia have engaged in conflict with the Australian government on a multitude of battlegrounds, including the lives and safety of indigenous children. State control over indigenous communities has extended into the interpersonal relationships between family and child, manifesting in coercive social work policies that extract and displace indigenous children from their homes. Nationwide efforts to cease this systemic displacement have been working tirelessly to bring indigenous children back home, yet these programs’ hegemonic legacies continue to reverberate in contemporary aboriginal lives.

Indigenous History and the Stolen Generation

While there are similarities between the plight and lives of Indigenous people in Australia to those in North America, it is important to familiarize ourselves with the uniqueness of the Australian indigenous community. It is necessary to not conflate the Australian experience with the Indigenous experiences we already know, as they are each uniquely and differently situated. The Australian Indigenous populations are known as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; this encompasses hundreds of groups, all with different languages and histories (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2021). Australia was colonized by Britain in 1788, negatively impacting the Indigenous populations immediately: epidemic disease was spread and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were forcibly moved to ‘reserves.’ The Indigenous population went from an estimated 320,000 at the time of colonization to 80,000 by the 1930s (2021).

Part of this decline is due to what is known as the Stolen Generation. From the early 1900s into the 1970s, discriminatory policies were aimed at forcing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to abandon their culture, language, and histories (Haebich, 2011). This went as far as governments and churches forcing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their homes. These children became known as the Stolen Generation. (Australia Together). This was a part of the government’s assimilation policy, which was based on the principle that their lives “would be improved if they became part of white society” (Australia Together). The survivors of the Stolen Generation are associated with higher rates of depression, PTSD, suicide, and worse health and economic outcomes than both other Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians (Australia Together). While the Australian government is not taking Indigenous children from their homes anymore, there is still a pushing of Indigenous erasure from Australian history and culture, which is necessary to confront (Haebich, 2011).

Over-representation of Indigenous Children in Australia’s Welfare System

Only 5% of Australia’s young demographic consists of indigenous children, yet indigenous children make up 42% of the children placed in out-of-home care (Bridges, 2023).

The overwhelming numbers of indigenous children enrolled in the Australian welfare system directly results from deliberate efforts made by the Australian state to assimilate and strip indigenous people from their authentic culture. Up until the 1960s, indigenous people of Australia faced segregation, removal from family, and placement into schools that served the purpose of assimilating the next generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples. This generation of indigenous people have been referred to as the “stolen generation” (Tilbury, 2008). Although explicit oppression ended in the 1960s, the over-representation of indigenous children in the Australian welfare system demonstrates the lasting effects

In a study conducted in 2008, Clare Tilbury found that indigenous children were three times more likely than  to be notified or reported to child protection authorities compared to their non-indigenous counterparts. The source of over-representation stems from the nature of the intervention used by Australian authorities’ hegemonic efforts.  Even more findings revealed that indigenous children were found to be victims of abuse and neglect by their own family members.

Although the Child Placement Principle aims to place the children in homes of their extended family, there is no guarantee and the regulation does not strictly adhere to guidelines, and often the principle is not even followed. Instead of choosing to invest in indigenous communities, the government permeates the vilified approach of indigenous communities. In these communities, Australian constitutional powers have withheld security payments from parents, increased policing and deployed arm services, prohibited the ownership and purchasing of alcohol, and controlled governance in certain areas.

Much like the United States and how marginalized communities are treated, abuse and neglect become a cyclical process. Building off this cyclical process, we can think about the master-slave dialectic and apply it to what is happening in Australian indigenous communities. The Australian government indoctrinated the “stolen generation” into believing that they were uncivil and violent humans, and therefore, certain indigenous people have this false sense of association with violence amongst as a part of their culture–almost as if it is the norm. This generational trauma has manifested as unstable home life that creates this over-representation of indigenous children in Australia’s welfare system.

Care Theory and (Post)Colonial Social Work

Aboriginal children’s systemic rehousing operates within a framework of state-organized care as a mode of colonial violence. Scholars of care generally conduct their work within the medical and public health fields, yet the lenses used to interpret care policy can transfer onto the experiences of those oppressed within postcolonial structures, like the Australian child welfare system. When removed from their family and community, aboriginal children are severed from their care systems under a form of colonialism often referred to as maternal colonialism. This concept depends upon a maternalistic, hegemonic ideology to “invade into the most intimate spaces and relationships of indigenous people’s lives” (Jacobs, 2005). Colonial social work policy breaks apart the “unsafe” indigenous family for the “good” of the indigenous child, which reflects an ideology rooted in the refusal to recognize the indigenous family’s structure or history as a legitimate form of being (“Bringing them Home,” 1997).

Similar studies of failed social work projects in indigenous communities find a refusal from the state to meet indigenous communities where they are, and instead continually coerce these communities towards a developmental standard the government holds (Stevenson, 2014). The expectation of progress–and refusal to recognize the nature of postcolonial indigenous existence–inherently severs the ability for care to occur. The consequence is state intervention without comprehension, and a dissonance between indigenous and white Australia exacerbated by the generational trauma of forced removals.

Indigenous Children in Out of Home Care: Implications of the Stolen Generations

A recursive analysis of Australian Indigenous children’s over-representation in out of home care and juvenile detention centers indicates that the implications of the Stolen Generations remain ever-present in the lived realities of their families and their communities. The rate at which Indigenous children are being removed from their families by child protection agencies has in fact increased to higher than any time during the last century. A Report from the Productivity Commission shows that in June 1997 there were 2,785 Indigenous children in out of home care (Gibson, 2013). By June 2020, 18,900 Indigenous children were recorded, 11 times the rate for non-Indigenous children (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2020). Furthermore, according to a repeat offender “blacklist” acquired by the Guardian (Smee, 2023), more than 95% of the children actively being monitored by police and youth justice authorities in north Queensland are Indigenous, indicating a lack of federal incentive to decrease the rates at which Indigenous children are removed from their families.

  Whilst many of these children grow up in fractured communities that expose them to child abuse, domestic and family violence, and alcoholism, dominant colonially-embedded narratives frame Indigenous peoples as perpetrators of their own poverty, violence, and trauma. As such, many federal policies and state interventions continue to replicate colonial dynamics whilst exacerbating the conditions of child abuse and domestic violence they aim at addressing (Funston et al., 2016, p.57). These policies often fail to consider the racialised nature of intergenerational trauma prevalent within Indigenous communities and the colonial origins of the poverty, family violence, and despair that continues to implicate such trauma. Instead, policies are often focused on increasing restrictions and the policing of Indigenous communities (Smee, 2023). 

Conclusion

Embracing the ongoing recursion of history assists in understanding historical experiences such as the Stolen Generations as moments not isolated in time with clear beginnings and ends, but culminations of moments that continually affect the lived realities and conditions of people in the present. Although these understandings should inform a different focus in child protection grounded in ongoing consultations with Indigenous communities and increasing community resources, Indigenous children continue to be removed and placed within out of home care, often leading to early entry into the juvenile youth system which exposes them to greater risks of physical, sexual, and emotional harm (Funston et al., 2016, p.52, 56). Such implications not only perpetuate but deepen the open wound that is the intergenerational trauma of the Stolen Generations whilst making it increasingly difficult for Indigenous children to make meaningful connections with their Indigenous cultural heritage and its unique ways of doing, being, and knowing. 

Bibliography

Australian Human Rights Commission (1997). Bringing them home: the ‘stolen children’ report.

Retrieved April 2, 2023, from

https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/publications/bringing-them-home.

Australian Institute of Family Studies (2020) Child protection and aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://aifs.gov.au/resources/policy-and-practice-papers/child-protection-and-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander#:~:text=At%2030%20June%202018%2C%2017%2C787,children%2C%20at%205.2%20per%201%2C000.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2021). Profile of Indigenous Australians. Retrieved

from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/profile-of-indigenous-australians

Alicia, B. (2023, April 1). Life Without Barriers will transfer responsibility of fostered Aboriginal children to Indigenous-led services. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-02/indigenous-led-foster-care-transfer-life-without-barriers/102164134

Funston, L., Herring, S., & ACMAG. (2016). When Will the Stolen Generations End? A Qualitative Critical Exploration of Contemporary ‘Child Protection’ Practices in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities. Sexual Abuse in Australia and New Zealand, 7(1), 51-58. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2022.2155129

Gibson, P. (2013, June 11). We have to stop the creation of another stolen generation. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/12/stolen-generation-aboriginal-children

Haebich, A. (2011). Forgetting Indigenous histories: Cases from the history of Australia’s stolen

generations. Journal of Social History, 44(4), 1033-1046.

Jacobs, M. D. (2005). Maternal Colonialism: White Women and Indigenous Child Removal in

the American West and Australia, 1880-1940. The Western Historical Quarterly, 36(4), 453–476. https://doi.org/10.2307/25443236

Smee, B. (2023, March 17). More than 95% of North Queensland children on Internal Police ‘blacklist’ are Indigenous. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/18/more-than-95-of-north-queensland-children-on-internal-police-blacklist-are-indigenous

Stevenson, L. (2014). Life beside itself: Imagining care in the Canadian Arctic. University of

California Press.

The stolen generation. Australians Together. (n.d.).

https://australianstogether.org.au/discover-and-learn/our-history/stolen-generations/

Tilbury, C. (2008). The over-representation of indigenous children in the Australian child welfare system. INTERNATIONAL J O U R N A L O F SOCIAL WELFARE, 18, 57–64.

Categories
Correspondents Desks

Empire, India, and Colonial Debts

Durga Sreenivasan, Howard Fifer, and Maitreyee Singh

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ahmad, Khalid. “The Kashmir Conflict: A Study of Imperialism, Colonialism and Sovereignty in the Post-Colony,” Academia, 2017.

Khalid Ahmad’s article provides a comprehensive analysis of the Kashmir conflict, situating it within the larger historical and geopolitical context of imperialism, colonialism, and post-colonialism. Ahmad argues that the conflict is the result of the failure of the post-colonial Indian state to address the grievances of the Kashmiri people and to honor their right to self-determination. The article provides an insightful perspective on the complexities of the Kashmir issue, highlighting the importance of understanding its historical roots and its geopolitical significance.

Alam, M. S. (2017). In the Shadows of the State: Indigenous Politics, Environmentalism, and Insurgency in Jharkhand, India. Duke University Press.

This book explores the ways in which indigenous people in the Indian state of Jharkhand negotiate with the state and multinational corporations for land and resource rights. Alam argues that the state’s desire for economic growth and modernization often results in the dispossession of indigenous people and the destruction of their environment. The book provides a detailed analysis of the social, economic, and political dynamics of indigenous resistance and the challenges they face in their struggle for self-determination.

BBC. (2015, July 22). Viewpoint: Britain must pay reparations to India. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33618621

This BBC article argues that the British government must pay reparations to India for the damage inflicted by colonialism. The article provides a brief history of British colonialism in India and highlights the economic, political, and social effects of colonialism that continue to impact India today. 

Bhattacharya, S. (2019, October 12). India: Internal colonialism? Millennium Post.

This article argues that the Indian state’s treatment of certain regions, particularly Kashmir and the Northeast, constitutes internal colonialism. The author argues that the Indian state’s policies and actions in these regions are characterized by economic exploitation, political domination, and cultural assimilation. The article also discusses the need for a decolonial approach to understanding and addressing the issues faced by these regions. Bhattacharya discusses the complexities of power and resistance in India, shedding light on the need for critical examinations of the Indian state’s policies and actions towards marginalized communities.

Blauner, Jonathan. “In the Shadows of the State: Indigenous Politics, Environmentalism, and Insurgency in Jharkhand, India,” Duke University Press, 2017.

Jonathan Blauner’s book explores the political, environmental and social struggles of the indigenous Adivasi communities in Jharkhand, India, who have long been marginalized by the Indian state. The book delves into the root causes of the insurgency movements in Jharkhand and the larger political context in which they have emerged. Blauner emphasizes the complexities and nuances of Adivasi politics and activism, highlighting the crucial role of indigenous perspectives in shaping resistance movements against the dominant Indian state.

Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. “The Colonial State” in The Nation and Its Fragments. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 14-34.

In this book chapter, Partha Chatterjee discusses the role of the colonial state in India and the ways in which it maintained its power through strategies of governance and rule. Chatterjee examines how the colonial state created a distinction between the “civil” and “political” spheres of Indian society and how this distinction helped to maintain colonial power and control. Through his work, Chatterjee contributes to ongoing debates about the history of colonialism and its lasting impact on Indian society. 

Curtis, J. (2021, August 31). Introduction: On reparations for slavery and colonialism. PoLAR. Retrieved from https://polarjournal.org/2020/07/31/reparations-for-slavery-and-colonialism/.

This article provides an introduction to a special issue of the journal PoLAR on reparations for slavery and colonialism. The author discusses the importance of addressing historical injustices and the need for reparations in order to achieve justice and reconciliation.  Through her work, Curtis sheds light on ongoing debates about the legacy of slavery and colonialism and their impact on contemporary society.

Fisher, M. (2022, August 27). The Long Road ahead for colonial reparations. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/27/world/americas/colonial-reparations.html

This article from The New York Times discusses the challenges and complexities involved in seeking reparations for colonialism. The article highlights the difficulties in determining who should be responsible for reparations and how they should be distributed. Furthermore, it provides an overview of the history of reparations, including the ways in which various countries have attempted to address the legacy of colonialism. The article notes that while some countries have made attempts at reparations, there has been resistance from former colonial powers, making it difficult to move forward with the process. The article also explores the idea that reparations may not only involve financial compensation but also a broader acknowledgment of the harm done by colonialism and efforts to address its ongoing effects. Overall, the article provides a thought-provoking analysis of the complex issue of colonial reparations and underscores the need for continued dialogue and action in this area.

Sarkar, T. (1997). The Decline of Subaltern Studies. Oxford University Press.

This article discusses the trajectory and controversies of the Subaltern Studies group, a collective of historians and scholars who sought to explore the histories and experiences of marginalized groups in India. Sarkar argues that the group’s focus on subaltern agency and resistance obscured the continued dominance of dominant groups, particularly the state and the bourgeoisie. The article critiques the group’s theoretical framework and its limitations in understanding the complexities of power and resistance in India. The author argues that the group’s focus on subaltern agency and resistance obscures the continued dominance of dominant groups, particularly the state and the bourgeoisie. Sarkar contributes to ongoing debates about the complexities of power and resistance in India, shedding light on the need for critical examinations of dominant groups and their impact on marginalized communities.

Kavita, K. (2015, August 9). Internal Colonialism in India: A story of systematic oppression. TwoCircles.net.

This article explores the idea of internal colonialism in India and argues that certain regions and communities have been subjected to systematic oppression and exploitation by the Indian state. The author provides examples of such regions and argues that the Indian state’s policies and actions in these areas are reminiscent of colonial practices. The article also discusses the need for a critical examination of the Indian state’s policies and actions towards marginalized communities.

Middleton, T. (2008). Provincialising Bengal: The View from Darjeeling. South Asia: Journal of South Asia Studies, 31(1), 40-61.

This article examines the complex history and power dynamics of the Darjeeling hills in West Bengal, India. Here, Middleton provides an insightful analysis of the intersections of ethnicity and identity politics in the region. He offers thoughtful consideration of the marginalization of the Gorkha people of West Bengal, mapping the parallels with colonialism. The subversive application of the methods and tools developed by Subaltern studies scholars back onto the movement’s nexus of West Bengal offers valuable perspective.

Mohanty, S. (2001). Empire’s Geography: Violence, Rule and the Subaltern in the Making of Colonial South Asia. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 19(6), 723-752.

This article explores the ways in which colonialism and imperialism shaped the geography of South Asia and the experiences of its subaltern populations. Mohanty argues that colonialism produced multiple forms of violence, including physical, economic, and cultural, that served to maintain the dominance of colonial powers. The article provides a critical analysis of the intersections of power, geography, and violence in colonial South Asia.

MacKenzie, J. (2015, July 27). Viewpoint: Why Britain does not owe reparations to India. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33647422

This BBC article presents an opposing viewpoint to the previous BBC article listed above. The author argues that Britain does not owe reparations to India and that the benefits of British colonialism in India outweigh the costs.

Perry, K. (2021, August 30). Delivering reparatory justice means uprooting the legacies of colonialism. openDemocracy. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/delivering-reparatory-justice-means-uprooting-legacies-colonialism/

This article argues for the need for reparatory justice to address the legacies of colonialism. The author highlights the ways in which colonialism has perpetuated inequalities and argues that addressing these legacies requires uprooting the underlying systems and structures that perpetuate them. ​​According to the article, reparatory justice is a concept that seeks to address the historical and ongoing harms of colonialism by providing redress to those who have been affected by it. It involves uprooting the legacies of colonialism in order to achieve economic, cultural, ecological, and political justice. Reparatory justice requires a systemic and holistic approach that goes beyond addressing individual instances of harm and seeks to address the underlying structures that perpetuate inequality. It also involves recognizing the interconnectedness of different forms of oppression and addressing them collectively

Ray, Niranjan. “India: Internal Colonialism,” Millennium Post, 2019.

In this opinion piece, Niranjan Ray argues that India’s dominant castes practice internal colonialism against marginalized communities, particularly Dalits and Adivasis. Ray contends that the Indian state has failed to address the systemic discrimination and oppression that these communities face, instead, it perpetuates the caste system through policies and practices that reinforce social hierarchies. The author calls for a fundamental reimagining of the Indian state, one that addresses the root causes of social injustice and fosters inclusive governance.

Sarkar, Sumit. “The Decline of Subaltern Studies,” Journal of Contemporary Thought, 2008.

Sarkar offers a critical evaluation of the Subaltern Studies project, a prominent school of historiography that emerged in India in the 1980s. Sarkar argues that the project’s focus on the agency of subaltern groups has failed to engage with the complexities of power relations and the limitations of the subaltern’s agency in the larger political context. Sarkar critiques the project’s overemphasis on cultural and linguistic aspects of subaltern identities at the expense of broader political and economic forces. The article is an essential contribution to the ongoing debates about the politics of representation and the role of subaltern perspectives in shaping historical narratives.

“The Plight of Dalits in India,” Two Circles, 2015. https://twocircles.net/2015aug09/1439096380.html 

This article sheds light on the ongoing discrimination and violence faced by Dalits, a marginalized community in India that has been subjected to caste-based oppression for centuries. The article highlights the systemic discrimination that Dalits face in various spheres of life, including education, employment, and political representation. The article is an important contribution to the ongoing discussions about social justice and human rights in India.

Tharoor, S. (2017). Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India. Scribe Publications.

Shashi Tharoor’s book “Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India” examines the devastating impact of British colonialism on India. Tharoor argues that British colonialism was not a benign force, but rather a system of exploitation and oppression that caused widespread suffering and death. He provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic, political, and social dimensions of British rule in India, and highlights the ways in which the British systematically dismantled India’s indigenous industries and imposed a system of exploitation and inequality that persists to this day. Tharoor also discusses the role of Indian collaborators in perpetuating British colonialism and the need for a frank reckoning with the legacy of colonialism in India and beyond. Through this powerful and incisive book, Tharoor makes a compelling case for the need to acknowledge the full extent of the damage caused by British colonialism and to work towards reparative justice for the people of India and other colonized nations.

The World.org-March 20, 2023. “We Are Worried:  Melting Glaciers Lead to Dangerous Overflow in the Peruvian Lake”

Article describes threat of lake overflow from melting Glaciers (caused by Climate Change).  This endangers 100,000 residents of Huarez, Peru.  The lake’s surface area has grown to be 30 times larger than it was 50 years ago, creating risk of glacial overflow.  In response to the threat posed the regional government and City have put in place a series of protective dikes and piping to siphon off water. Studies have found the German energy company RWE, by virtue of burning coal to produce energy since around 1900, is currently responsible for 1/2 of 1% of global carbon emissions in the atmosphere.  There is a lawsuit pending in German courts to recover 1/2 of 1% of the total cost of the project in Huarez, or $20,000.

Wadekar, A. June, 21, 2021 “Durham Budget for 2021-22 Fiscal Year Includes 6 Million Dollars for Reparations Through Green Infrastructures Projects” DukeChronicle.com.

This article notes that this is about 1 % of the annual Budget, and that this money will support projects in historically Black neighborhoods. The article notes that City Council specifically earmarks these expenditures are earmarked as ‘Reparations’.

New York Times—March 24, 2023—”Expelling Gandhi From Parliament, Modi Allies Thwart a Top Rival”

Gandhi was found guilty of criminal defamation for a statement made during a campaign speech in 2019 and sentenced to 2 years in prison.  Even before an appeal could be heard he was expelled from Parliament and thus made ineligible to run against Modi in the next National election

Categories
Correspondents Desks

Temporality, Development, and Colonial Ruins in East Africa

Jackson Plemmons, Jenny Huang, and Michael Baird

Introduction: Representing Non-Linear Time

Ugandan author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s 2014 novel Kintu simultaneously tells the story of one family as it unfolds over multiple generations. The book opens with the 2004 death of Kamu Kintu who is murdered in a suburb of Kampala after being falsely accused of theft before turning to Kintu Kidda, the ruler of a Baganda province who in 1754 accidentally kills his son. Readers of the novel follow the resulting “curse” as it manifests in successive generations before reaching Kamu; however, Makumbi subverts the Western convention of chronological narrative with its implied causal relations—notably and pertinently often employed in the tracing and validating of royal lineages—by having the story progress in each time period a little at a time before switching to another.

Rather than linear chronology, the resulting narrative resembles something like French philosopher Bruno Latour’s imagining of time as a spiral in which certain moments in the (chronologically) more distant past echo the present to a greater degree than the more recent past (Latour 1993, 75). Perhaps, even, the narrative is circular with the past continually playing out and collapsing into the present. In writing Kintu, Makumbi drew upon what she identifies as an emic Ugandan paradigm of time in which “the dead are not with us but are still with us” (Underwood 2017). It is the same one in which every set of twins is given an identical set of names. Simultaneously, they are an individual, an ancestor, a return, and a collective.

“Railway Time” in British East Africa

The British, in colonizing Uganda, exported their conception of linear time in a number of ways. Unidirectional, teleological time was a prerequisite for the civilizing and evolutionist rhetoric of the colonial project, but this temporal imaginary was not just a discursive formation. It also arrived in East Africa on a technology of rule that remade time and space in the region—the Uganda Railway.

In the British metropole, the trains of the London Underground themselves became symbols of modernity, civilization, and progress. [Top: Charles Sharland, Light, power & speed. 1910. Bottom: Mervyn Lawrence, Always warm and bright. 1912.]
In East Africa, the Uganda Railway promised exotified spectacle while ensuring safety and ease of travel. The flow of British tourists rehearsed and enacted colonial claims to time and space. [Waterlow and Sons, Uganda Railway British East Africa. Early 20th century.]

The Uganda Railway, built between 1896 and 1901, was named for its final destination, but the track itself only ran from the Indian Ocean to Lake Victoria (Whitehouse 1948 and Carnegie Museum of Natural History). The Uganda Protectorate could then be reached by steamship. Reliable and consistent travel by train or steamer necessitated the establishment of regular and standardized time. Local temporalities and even the individual experience of time with its accelerations, decelerations, and multiplicities were reordered and challenged by time that only moved forward in a predictable and uniform manner. (On the experience of time see, for instance, Lefebvre 2004.) Unsurprisingly, the British placed themselves as the longitudinal center of the world from which time zones became measured.

The ontological and material ruins of the Uganda Railway continue to shape the political and economic landscape of the region. In Uganda, the development-focused National Resistance Movement political party, which has been in power for almost four decades, is reportedly attempting to work with a Turkish company to complete a project that the British never could—building a railway from the Kenyan border to the interior of the country (Reid 2017, Ngila 2023, and “Achievements”). The Kenyan Railways Corporation still utilizes the original route of the Uganda Railway, and the architects of the stalled Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport Corridor project have intentionally drawn on the historical precedent of the Uganda Railway in emphasizing the potential for similar “expansion and development” in northern Kenya (Asselmeyer 2022 and Aalders 2020).

The Colonial Ghost of Kenya: Land Privatization

Drought, violence, famine, poverty, and corruption are all too common in the rural pastoralist communities of Kenya. In many ways, the experience of modern Kenyan pastoralists is a product of colonial occupation by the British from 1895 to 1963. The legacies of colonialism bleed into modern day culture, infrastructure, and politics among other aspects of daily life. In this section, we will explore the implications of neoliberalism, modernity, and temporality in the context of pastoralist communities in Kenya. Specifically, modern policies favoring the privatization of tribal land and its connection to climate change will be discussed, drawing on both personal experience and outside sources.

According to the World Bank, 93% of Kenyans in 1960 lived in rural communities which has steadily decreased to 72% of Kenyans in 2021. The majority of the rural population are pastoralist tribes, meaning they live off the land, herding animals and growing crops in small pockets of tribal communities. An estimated 9 million pastoralists still inhabit Kenya. 

There are two main types of pastoralists: highlanders and lowlanders. Lowlanders live in lower altitudes, and consequently, more arid conditions not suitable for settling down permanently. Lowlanders are mostly nomadic and move settlement areas once the resources in that area cannot sustain grazing. In contrast, highlanders live in high altitude areas and receive more rain, which allows for more permanent settlements. Highlanders tend to own more livestock and are more wealthy in general than lowlanders. Both highlanders and lowlanders are often affected by long droughts and extreme starvation, with the lowlanders often experiencing more brutal conditions.

Before the British occupation, the lands inhabited by pastoralists were communally owned by each tribe, and land was generally free to graze. The British attempted to privatize land ownership in the 1950s, reasoning that private land ownership would lead to more sustainable land use and less degradation of resources. Recent research concluded that land subdivision “does not precipitate ecological sustainability in arid and semi-arid areas” (Rozen 2016). Before land privatization, “pastoralists could respond to seasonal variation and drought by moving freely across the land to find adequate grazing for their animals” (Rozen 2016). Climate change combined with land privatization has increased the length and strength of droughts, with Northern Kenya experiencing one of its worst droughts in history concurrently. 

In addition to the environmental impact, land privatization leads to more conflict and violence between neighboring pastoralist tribes. The concept of ownership has led tribal warriors to steal or kill any animals from another tribe that enter their land, which leads to human on human violence often in the form of gunfights.

Like a haunting colonial ghost, land privatization continues to this day, having adverse effects and uprooting cultural traditions in favor of modernity, and amplifying the effect of climate change.

A lowland Samburu pastoralist boy playing with a bow and arrow in a traditional settlement.

Tanzania: Limitations of Growth in the Modern Day

Tanzania, an East African country, is currently experiencing vast growth economically, socially, and politically. It has been deemed as “becoming one of the best investment destinations in the world” (Okafor 2023). The country being viewed in an economic sense in terms of its utility and resources it can provide for the world is a repetition of history that can be seen when Tanzania was first colonized by Germany in the 1880s (Ingham et al. 2023). After World War I, the country came into the possession of the British and independence from Britain was finally gained on December 9, 1961.  

Tanzania existed as two separate entities in the colonial period, Zanzibar and Tanganyika (Ingham et al. 2023). The colonization of Tanzania left the country vulnerable and lacking the proper tools to prosper. The early post-colonial era was characterized by violence in the form of riots and revolutions. For example, the Zanzibar Revolution of 1964 took place when the African majority engaged in anti-Arab violence against Arab elites (Eddoumi 2021). These events proved to be pivotal in the merging of Zanzibar and Tanganyika into the Tanzania we know today. 

Marks of colonialism manifest itself in contemporary life as seen by its largely agrarian economy, low quality public services, and corruption and inefficiencies of the government. The agriculture sector accounts for one quarter of the country’s GDP and employs three quarters of all Tanzanian workers (Machangu-Motcho and Rispoli). Furthermore, the land faces degradation issues because of unstainable farming practices, climate change, poverty, political instability, and insecure land tenure system (Kamuzora and Majule 2018). Additionally, the country faces issues of equitable access to public services. There is a disparity between the quality of services rural and urban areas receive. Reforms have been made to decrease corruption in the government as shown by the establishment of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB); however, it is a pervasive issue that continues to affect all sectors such as government procurement, land administration, taxation, and customs (Hoseah 2008).

Although post-colonial Tanzania has made great strides in terms of political, social, and economic improvement, the country still grapples with issues that can be rooted in its colonial past. It shows that hauntings from the past continue to affect Tanzania’s livelihood in both visible and invisible ways.

Bibliography

Aalders, Johannes Theodor. “Building on the Ruins of Empire: The Uganda Railway and the LAPSSET Corridor in Kenya.” Third World Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 5, 2020, pp. 996–1013.

“Achievements.” Achievements | National Resistance Movement, https://www.nrm.ug/achievements. Accessed 22 Mar. 2023.

“A Guide to the United States’ History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Kenya.” U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State. Accessed March 22, 2023. https://history.state.gov/countries/kenya#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20recognized%20Kenya,independence%20on%20December%2012%2C%201963. 

Asselmeyer, Norman. “Ruin of Empire: The Uganda Railway and Memory Work in Kenya.” Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, vol. 14, no. 1, Mar. 2022, pp. 14–32.

Eddoumi, Nabil. “The Zanzibar Revolution of 1964 .” The Zanzibar Revolution of 1964, Black Past, 29 Nov. 2021, https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/events-global-african-history/the-zanzibar-revolution-of-1964/.

Hoseah, Edward. Corruption in Tanzania: The Case for Circumstantial Evidence. Cambria Press, 2008.

Kamuzora, Faustin, and Amos Enock Majule. 2018, pp. 12–13, United Republic of Tanzania Land Degradation Neutrality Target Setting Programme Report. 

Karuka, Manu. Empire’s Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and Transcontinental Railroad. University of California Press, 2019.

Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Translated by Catherine Porter, Harvard University Press, 1993.

Lefebvre, Henri. Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life. Continuum, 2004.

Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga. Kintu. Transit Books, [2014] 2017.

Mascarenhas, Adolfo C., Kenneth Ingham, Frank Matthew Chiteji, and Deborah Fahy Bryceson. “Tanzania”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Mar. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/place/Tanzania. 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. “Current and Future Challenges and Opportunities in Tanzania.” Current and Future Challenges and Opportunities in Tanzania, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Apr. 2014, https://um.dk/en/danida/strategies-and-priorities/country-policies/tanzania/current-and-future-challenges-and-opportunities-in-tanzania.

Ngila, Faustine. “Uganda Courts Turkey to Build Its Railway, Cancels China Contract.” Quartz, 13 Jan. 2023, https://qz.com/uganda-is-now-courting-turkey-to-build-its-railway-1849983843.

Okafor, Chinedu. Tanzania Is Fast Becoming One of the Best Investment Destinations in the World, Business Insider, 14 Mar. 2023, https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/markets/tanzania-is-fast-becoming-a-top-investment-destination/4wtk1gv.

Reid, Richard J. A History of Modern Uganda. Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Rozen, Jonathan. “Land Privatisation and Climate Change Are Costing Rural Kenyans.” ISS Africa, November 30, 2016. https://issafrica.org/iss-today/land-privatisation-and-climate-change-are-costing-rural-kenyans. 

“Rural Population (% of Total Population) – Kenya.” Data. Accessed March 22, 2023. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS?locations=KE. 

“Uganda Railway.” Carnegie Museum of Natural History, https://mammals.carnegiemnh.org/childs-frick-abyssinian-expedition/uganda-railway/.

Underwood, Alexia. “So Many Ways of Knowing: An Interview with Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Author of ‘Kintu.’” Los Angeles Review of Books, 31 Aug. 2017, https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/so-many-ways-of-knowing-an-interview-with-jennifer-nansubuga-makumbi-author-of-kintu/.

Whitehouse, G. C. “The Building of the Kenya and Uganda Railway.” The Uganda Journal, vol. 12, no. 1, Mar. 1948, pp. 1–15.

Categories
Correspondents Desks

Hawaiian Tourism as Recursive Colonialism: Education’s Colonial Legacy

Bella Soluri and Newton Wainscott

Introduction

Particularly outside of academic circles, Hawaii is rarely considered in regards to its colonial past. While this is a long standing struggle within the United States of America, Hawaii is particularly vulnerable to this type of historical oversight, primarily due to centuries of supplantion of indigenous thought and reality with misinformation regarding the colonial past and present of the islands. As Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang say, “neither external nor internal colonialism adequately describe the form of colonialism… in which the colonizer comes to stay” (Tuck and Yang 2012). Due to the permeance of colonialism in Hawaii, the island faces a unique situation regarding how to proceed with decolonial efforts and enter a postcolonial era. 

A Brief Colonial History of Hawaii

Prior to European intervention, Hawaii had created a complex culture, providing “cultural stability and self-sufficiency” (McCubbin and Marsella 2009, 377) for 400,000 to 875,000 Hawaiians. Kapu, Hawaii’s system of order and governance, was key in keeping peace and order whilst providing subsistence for native peoples. Generally, Hawaiian culture is best understood as intimately intertwining body, spirit, and mind, while simultaneously placing high importance on the preservation of and harmony with nature. When James Cook arrived in 1778, description of Hawaii starkly opposed the actual culture: Europeans depicted the native people as “friendly and hospitable” (McCubbin and Marsella 2009), a characterization that continues into today, but also as villains, savages, and creatures, with John Meares noting that they had a “propensity toward thievery” (as cited in McCubbin and Marsella 2009). Soon after Cook’s arrival, disease proliferated throughout the islands, significantly reducing the population of the native Hawaiians, despite the creation of a Hawaiian monarchy in 1810. In 1853, their numbers had been reduced to a mere 84,000. American minister Rufus Anderson compared this mass death to “the amputation of diseased members of the body” (as cited in McCubbin and Marsella 2009). Christian missionaries like Anderson continued traveling to the islands, further contributing to the destruction of native culture. Eventually, in 1893, the American Minister to Hawaii invaded the sovereign nation and overthrew Queen Liliuokalani without government permission. While this action was publicly denounced by President Cleveland, Hawaii was still annexed in 1898 “without a single Native Hawaiian vote” (McCubbin and Marsella 2009, 378). Once Hawaii officially became a state in 1959, the economy began to shift away from prior agricultural endeavors into tourism.

Modern Hawaiian Tourism: Beneficial or Detrimental?

Hawaii’s reliance on tourism, primarily from U.S. citizens due to reduced barriers resulting from statehood, has become more of a contentious subject after the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID had a profound effect on Hawaii’s economy, as over 17% of Hawaii’s economy revolves around tourism, which almost completely halted with the onset of the pandemic (Bond-Smith and Fuleky 2022). The economy entered an “unprecedented decline” (Bond-Smith and Fuleky 2022, 1), and now faces an uneven recovery. Hawaii’s gross domestic product, or GDP, has still failed to reach 2019 levels (Bond-Smith and Fuleky 2022), even with the large boom in visitation since restrictions have been lifted. This is likely due to the amount of job loss that occurred between 2020-2021; Hawaii endured the highest job losses in the nation as a result of their large amount of employment that revolves around tourism. Even prior to COVID-19, there were stark issues in the tourism industry on the islands. There is an ongoing water crisis in Hawaii, due to tourist misuse and pollution of water sources, as well as a lack of land due to the construction of large resorts and hotels (Bacilio 2022). Environmental degradation is also common, particularly in the case of green sea turtles, where nesting populations have drastically declined due to “disturbance and disrespectful public behavior” (NOAA 2021). Resident sentiment surveys paint a similar picture. The 2022 survey, prepared for Hawaii’s State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), demonstrates just how controversial tourism has become in the state. 67% of residents believe that their island is “being run for tourists at the expense of the local people” (DBEDT 2022), and only 27% of responders agreed that they “had a voice in their island’s tourism development decisions” (DBEDT 2022). Given this information, it becomes hard to see why tourism in Hawaii continues unchanged despite the wishes and concerns of local residents. Part of the answer lies in the education system of Hawaii itself.

Education, Youth Indoctrination, Tourism, and the Internalization of Colonial Stereotypes

Education and school curriculum, especially at the elementary level when children are highly susceptible, can be used as tools for colonialism and different colonial ways of thinking to be passed down through generations. In particular, there are links within Hawaii regarding their elementary education, the tourism industry, and its roots in colonialism. As discussed above, tourism is a vital part of Hawaii’s economy, but the upholding and perpetuation of said tourism has strong connections to colonial powers. For instance, Julie Kaomea found that Hawaiian studies textbooks at the elementary level utilize images that resemble the stereotypical depictions previously used by colonial voyagers, and also currently perpetuated within the modern visitor/tourist industry (Kaomea 2000). To further extrapolate on this point, Komea cautions against hypervisibility within textbooks, and how oftentimes recognition or inclusion within curricula “may ultimately do more damage than good” (Kaomea 2000). 

While she examined the most widely used textbooks regarding Hawaiian studies within Hawaiian elementary school curriculum, Kaomea found that they had striking resemblances to the Hawaiian tour books that are pushed out within the tourist industry, including stereotypical depictions of Hawaiian Natives, the ideas of hospitality and welcoming reception/reverence of colonists and newcomers, picturesque views of beaches, and even the title of the books: 

Hawaiian Studies Textbook

Hawaiian Travel Guide

Hawaiian Textbook Image

Hawaiian Postcard

Textbook Image of Captain Cook’s “Royal Welcome”

John Webber’s Original Depiction of Cook’s Arrival

The educational materials above in comparison to tourist materials and colonial propaganda/paintings represent the ways that education and textbooks work to indoctrinate Hawaiian Native youth into internalizing the colonial ways of thinking and knowing, and further supporting the tourist industry. The stereotypical depictions of Hawaiian Native women being overly nice and welcoming, coupled with the peaceful and almost “royal” welcoming of colonist Captain Cook are just a few of the depictions that are taught in Hawaiian elementary schools (Kaomea 2000). When the kids grow up believing the colonial, white supremacist myths of Hawaiians being accepting of colonists and “tourists”  like Captain Cook and viewing all tourists as deserving of the “royal” treatment, the following generations then continue to internalize and uphold the colonial ways of thinking via tourism. They also begin to internalize the stereotypical depictions of Native Hawaiians that further help to fuel tourism in Hawaii. Educational materials in Hawaii pass down colonial ways of thinking that uphold the tourist industry and create an incredibly harmful cycle of colonial influence within Hawaii. 

Conclusion

The concept of postcolonialism becomes difficult to grasp when looking towards Hawaii, given the deep entrenchment of colonial ways of thinking that have accompanied the territorialization of these lands and the settler colonialism that occurred. The colonists from the United States never left Hawaii. There was no retreating, no independence, but instead they were annexed and forced to become a part of the United States due to the economic control and devastation they had faced at the hands of European settlers. So the question remains, how does Hawaii proceed in terms of decolonization? In their article Pacific Moves Beyond Colonialism: A Conversation from Hawai’i and Guahan, Na’Puti and Rohrer discuss various pathways of decolonization and postcolonial thought in regard to Hawaii. Recentering indigeneity and the identity of the Kanaka Maoli (Indigenous people of Hawai’i) is a vital step, which includes understanding the importance of place and land in terms of sovereignty, self determination, and the idea that for Indigenous peoples, “Land and sea are ways by which peoplehood is fashioned” (Na’Puti and Rohrer 2017, 540). Further than this acknowledgement, undoing the teachings and educational tools that justify and deem assimilation and Americanization to be inevitable must occur. Making clear in textbooks that Native Hawaiians, Kanaka Maoli, were not passive agents during the colonial overthrow and annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii, but were active protestors and agents of resistance. Written in Olelo Hawai’i, or the Hawaiian language, there are documented “speeches, petitions, rallies, poetry, songs, stories” (Na’Puti and Rohrer 2017, 541) and other various forms of resistance, and it is in teaching this history of resistance to colonialism, through a combination of decolonial and postcolonial thought, that will lend to uprooting the colonial way of thinking and knowing within Hawaii.

Bibliography

“DBEDT Resident Sentiment Survey Spring 2022 Highlights.” Presentation prepared for the State Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, Davies Pacific Center, Honolulu, HI, August 2022. https://www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/media/9744/dbedt-resident-sentiment-spring-2022-hta-board-presentation-accessible.pdf 

“Hawaii – History and Heritage.” Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, November 6, 2007. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/hawaii-history-and-heritage-4164590/. 

“Turtles, Tourism, and Traffic-Keeping Hawaiʻi Honu Safe.” NOAA, September 6, 2021. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/turtles-tourism-and-traffic-keeping-hawaii-honu-safe. 

Bacilio, Cristell. “Hawaii Tourism: Opposite of a Paradise for Locals.” International Relations Review, October 27, 2022. https://www.irreview.org/articles/hawaii-tourism-opposite-of-a-paradise-for-locals#:~:text=Although%20tourism%20is%20a%20major,ongoing%20water%20crisis%20in%20Hawaii. 

Bond-Smith, Steven, and Fuleky, Peter. “The Effects of the Pandemic on the Economy of Hawaii.” The Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii (2022). https://uhero.hawaii.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/UHEROwp2204.pdf 

Kaomea, Julie. “A Curriculum of Aloha? Colonialism and Tourism in Hawaii’s Elementary Textbooks.” Curriculum Inquiry 30, no. 3 (2000): 319–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/0362-6784.00168.

McCubbin, Laurie D., and Marsella, Anthony. “Native Hawaiians and Psychology: The Cultural and Historical Context of Indigenous Ways of Knowing.” Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 5, no. 4 (2009): 374-387. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016774.

Na’Puti, Tiara R., and Judy Rohrer. “Pacific Moves Beyond Colonialism: A Conversation from Hawai’i and Guåhan.” Feminist Studies 43, no. 3 (2017): 537. https://doi.org/10.15767/feministstudies.43.3.0537.  

Tuck, Eve, and Yang, K. Wayne. “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education, and Society 1, no. 1 (2012): 1-40. https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n38.04.

Categories
Correspondents Desks

In/dependence: How colonialism left its mark on Southeast Asia

By: Kayris Baggett, Jaylon Crisp, Levin Low, Jennifer Tran

The shift from colonial to postcolonial status is generally understood to be punctuated by much violence, suffering, and heartache. Look closer still, and one sees that this autonomy is not as total as implied; the shift is “not so much of independence as of being in-dependence” (Young 2003, 34). Thus, the postcolonial era is typically characterized not by freedom, but by the persistence of colonial power dynamics in more insidious ways which the colonized state is not equipped to oppose. Whether in pursuit of sovereignty, or desperate attempts to retain some level of autonomy under ever-increasing economic and political pressures, the experience of being forced into neo-colonial relationships is devastatingly common among Southeast Asian nation-states. We take a lens to Thailand, Malaysia/Singapore, and Vietnam in order to examine this unending struggle for true independence in the colonial and neo-colonial eras.

Thailand: A Two-Sided Coin

The British made their first intrusions into Siam (now Thailand) in 1855, when King Mongkut was coerced under threat of invasion into signing a treaty that elevated British traders above Siamese law and prevented tariff increases on British goods. Similar treaties were signed with twelve other European countries over the following decades, all sharing two insidious characteristics: they were “irrevocable and eternal” (Sayre 1927). These restrictions on trade and internal agency trapped the Siamese kingdom in a persistent state of semi-coloniality. The succeeding monarch, Chulalongkorn, continued his predecessor’s appeasement policies upon his accession in 1873; he is often credited for Siam’s status as the only Southeast Asian nation to avoid official colonization (Hafner et al. 2005). 

However, this is not to say that the nation emerged any more unscathed—indeed, quite the opposite. To preserve Siamese autonomy in the face of mounting tensions with the French and British throughout the mid- to late 1800s, Chulalongkorn was forced to conform to various Western policies, including the ceding of territories within today’s Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia and the payment of millions of francs in reparations (Sayre 1927). This struggle to remain independent, while outwardly successful, has left myriad scars on the Thai nation, as a result of semi-colonial subjugation.

Map of Siamese land cessions: purple = to French, red = to British, yellow = Thailand’s current borders. Source: Wikimedia Commons

However, the unfortunate truth is that Thailand is also a participant in modernized forms of colonialism. The nationalist historiography only tells the story of a victimized and persevering Thai people, concealing the history of the minority to the subaltern. The modernization of Siam involved changes not only in development and culture, but also in ideas of power and universality. The desire for a centralized power and universal national identity emerged, pushing King Chulalongkorn for stricter control over the northeastern and southern provinces which largely contained Lao and Malay ethnic groups (McCargo 2017). An amalgam of eurocentric ideals and Thai identity, an “alternative” form of modernity, was conceived, beginning the systematic rejection of Other ethnic traditions and their forced assimilation into a modernized Thai identity.

As dominance shifted from monarchs to official elites, Thailand’s internal colonialism continues today, with power centralized with the Thai majority. An example is the Thai-appointed Muslim civil courts specifically for the four majority Islamic provinces of Songhkla, Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat (Loos 2010). Not unlike the courts made for the indigenous people of traditional colonial practices, the courts are autonomous outside the Malay-Muslim community, giving the centralized Thai population control over the minority under the guise of cultural inclusivity. It is unclear whether the British and French are to blame, but it is apparent that the foundations of Thailand’s ideology is the inheritance of a colonial past.

Thai Muslims call for action following 85 Muslim deaths during the Tak Bai massacre of 2004. Source: Reuters

Malaysia/Singapore

Polarization runs deep in Malaysia, and its main dividing line is ethnic. Malays make up the majority of the population, and Chinese, Indian, and other small indigenous groups do not have equal rights. A racial hierarchy exists, with the Malays sitting at the top. 

We can trace this ethnocentrism back to the struggle for independence from British colonial rule. When the British formed the Malayan Union to lay the foundation for a multiracial, independent nation-state, Malay elites mobilized in outrage. Granting equal political and citizenship rights to non-Malays would diminish sultans’ sovereignty, and they formed the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in response. Later, UMNO joined forces with Chinese and Indian parties to form the Alliance, but UMNO still held the reins. This position allowed the Malays to institutionalize their ethnic supremacy; the Malaysian political landscape was built upon racial and identity politics, something that (perhaps directly) contributed to the separation of Singapore.

When Malaysia was first formed, the Chinese majority of Singapore’s population were dissatisfied, to say the least. They protested the discriminatory policies with race riots, bombing, and sedition. Eventually, Singapore was expelled, and they immediately instituted a more authoritative government to begin breaking down the racial class system. Mandating a common language (English) that was not affiliated with any of the major ethnic groups, taking land ownership to build low-income housing, mandating ethnic and income quotas in said housing to prevent ethnic enclaves or “rich and poor neighborhoods,” and adopting an extremely meritocratic approach (especially in education) successfully dismantled old aristocratic systems left behind by the British and inherited by the Malays. The Malaysian experience contrasts deeply with the Singaporean experience in these ways.

Vietnam

A Vietnamese history of colonization through France and, by extension, the American regime, has shaped the country’s economics, especially in terms of its status as a “developing” country in the eyes of the West.

In the late 1940s, the French struggled to assert control over its colonies in Indochina — Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos — despite financial backing from the United States. France promised Vietnam its autonomy by 1949, but with a caveat of French oversight into the country’s defense and foreign policy. Instead, the Viet Minh United Front asserted its role by proclaiming the country’s independence in 1945 (Hack 2012). In 1954, the French-controlled garrison at Điện Biên Phủ fell following a four-month siege conducted by Hồ Chí Minh, a revolutionary in the Việt Minh independence movement. The French pulled out of the region, and in their stead, the United States became committed to countering communist nationalists in the region in fear of political instability. They would not withdraw from Vietnam for another two decades (Dien Bien Phu).

Before French colonization, the Vietnamese economy was mainly agrarian and village-oriented, causing it to be considered “developing” by Western countries. The French designated North Vietnam for manufacturing and South Vietnam for agricultural products, exacerbating regional differences and increasing the importation of French goods. Following the Vietnam War, land redistribution and agricultural collectivism under the Communist Party became key tenets for economic restoration (Bui and Preechametta 2016). War had strained Vietnam’s economy due to resource expenditure and the sheer number of deaths, as well as the exodus of refugees, many of which were skilled laborers and educated peoples. Đổi Mới was a set of notable economic reforms that created a socialist-oriented market economy, introducing more opportunities for market forces to work with enterprises and government agencies, as well as private ownership of small enterprises. This, along with other reforms, helped lift the country from its position as a traditional “developed” country.

Despite the strides Vietnam has taken in improving its economy, the context of colonization remains. In an attempt to push North Vietnam into a peace agreement, Henry Kissinger planned in the 1972 Paris Peace Accords to pay war reparations to Vietnam. Lê Đức Thọ, the head of North Vietnamese delegation, initially suggested $8 billion — $4.5 billion for the North and $3.5 billion for the South (The Forgotten Debt to Vietnam 2000). A draft of the agreement in January 1973 lowered the amount to $3.25 billion over a five-year period, with $1-1.5 billion offered for food and other necessities. Neither the North nor the South respected this agreement, giving the United States an opportunity to back out of reparations. In 1999, the United States offered Vietnam $3 million, but continued to hold Vietnam $145 million in debt that Communist Party of Vietnam inherited when it consolidated with the South. Persisting debt keeps Vietnam in a state of dependence, raising questions of whether Vietnam will ever be able to escape its status as a “developing” country in the view of the West.

Conclusion

With the development of postcolonial theory, we as a society must stay resilient in understanding colonialism’s branching derivations. As Indonesia’s President Sukarno put at the 1955 Bandung Conference, 

“Colonialism has also its modern dress… It is a skillful and determined enemy, and appears in many guises. It does not give up its loot easily.” (Sukarno, 1955).

Bibliography

Bui, Minh-Tam T., and Arayah Preechametta. “Land Inequality or Productivity: What Mattered in Southern Vietnam after 1975?” Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies 3, no. 2 (June 11, 2016): 300–319. https://doi.org/10.1002/app5.127.

“Dien Bien Phu and the Fall of French Indochina, 1954.” U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State. Accessed March 7, 2023. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/dien-bien-phu.

Hack, Karl. “Decolonization and Violence in Southeast Asia: Crises of Identity and Authority.” In Beyond Empire and Nation: The Decolonization of African and Asian Societies, 1930s-1970s, edited by Els Bogaerts and Remco Raben, 137–66. Brill, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w8h2zm.9.

Hafner, James A., et al. “Thailand.” Encyclopaedia Britannica website, Mar 2023. Accessed March 7, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/place/Thailand/The-postwar-crisis-and-the- return-of-Phibunsongkhram.

Ken, W. L. (1982). The Malayan Union: A Historical Retrospect [Review of British Policy and Malay Politics during the Malayan Union Experiment, 1942-1948, by A. J. Stockwell]. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 13(1), 184–191. http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 20070478.

Keyes, Charles F. “Ethnic Identity and Loyalty of Villagers in Northeastern Thailand.” Asian Survey 6, no. 7 (1966): 362–69. https://doi.org/10.2307/2642329.

Loos, Tamara. 2010. The Ambiguous Allure of the West: Traces of the Colonial in Thailand. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Scholarship Online https://doi.org/10.5790/hongkong/ 9789622091214.003.0004.

McCargo, Duncan. 2017. “Things Fall Apart? Thailand`s Post-Colonial Politics.” 수완나부미 9 (1): 85. 

Paik, Christopher, and Jessica Vechbanyongratana. 2019. “Path to Centralization and Development: Evidence from Siam.” World Politics 71 (2). Cambridge University Press: 289–331. doi:10.1017/S0043887118000321.

Sayre, Francis Bowes. “Siam’s Fight for Sovereignty.” The Atlantic website, Nov 1927. Accessed March 7, 2023. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1927/11/siams- fight-for-sovereignty/649803/.

Sukarno. 1955. Bandung Introductory Speech. Bandung: Indonesia.

“The Forgotten Debt to Vietnam.” The New York Times. The New York Times, November 18, 2000. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/18/opinion/the-forgotten-debt-to-vietnam.html.

Welsh, Bridget (2020). Malaysia’s Political Polarization: Race, Religion, and Reform. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/08/18/ malaysia-s-political-polarization-race-religion-and-reform-pub-82436.

Young, Robert J.C. 2003. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.

Categories
Correspondents Desks

Going Off the Rails: The Tren Maya’s Infringement on Contemporary Indigenous Maya Populations

Diego Almaraz and Kaitlyn Clingenpeel

Starting in Cancún, the Tren Maya will draw in tourists and transport them across and around the Yucatán Peninsula to multiple major Maya archaeological sites including Tulum, Chichen Itza, Palenque, and Calakmul, among others. This $9.8 billion and over 1,500 km long railway will be able to transport up to 40,000 passengers across southeast Mexico and stands to bring a great deal of revenue back to the government (Pérez Ortega and Gutiérrez Jaber 2022). This megaproject, proposed by Mexico’s current President: Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), which connects 5 Mexican states: Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo, is set to start operations at the end of 2023 (Gobierno de Mexico n.d.; Pérez Ortega and Gutiérrez Jaber 2022). 

Map of the projected route for the Tren Maya showing existing and new rail lines (Diaz Montemayor 2019)

While this project makes use of some existing cargo lines, a great deal of construction will also need to take place to create the looping track that connects the peninsula (Diaz Montemayor 2019). This project has garnered a lot of criticism since it was proposed by AMLO, specifically related to the issues with the construction of the new track. The train is set to impact at least 1,300 archaeological sites, 10 protected natural areas, and more than 143,000 Indigenous peoples living along the train’s route (Pérez Ortega and Gutiérrez Jaber 2022). The increase in tourism and people passing through the region also raises the risk of potentially increasing the drug and human trafficking in the area along with it (Pérez Ortega and Gutiérrez Jaber 2022). With incomplete environmental analyses and a rushed timeline, this project poses a great risk to the livelihoods of the Indigenous peoples and to the delicate biodiverse ecosystems the tracks run through (Carmago and Vázquez-Maguirre 2021; Diaz Montemayor 2019; Pérez Ortega and Gutiérrez Jaber 2022). The route crosses through many rural Indigenous communities, discovered and undiscovered archaeological sites, and the habitats of endangered and threatened species. Certain stretches of the train also run over a network of complex and fragile underground caves (Associated Press 2022). The losses on the social, economic, academic, and ecological levels if the project is handled incorrectly would be astronomical and this is a worry of many activists.

Protected ecological areas along the route of the Tren Maya in green (CONACYT 2019). 
Indigenous regions and archaeological sites along the route of the Tren Maya (CONACYT 2019).

Vida y Esperanza

One example of such a place put at risk by the construction of the train is the village Vida y Esperanza. The train will run right past the doors of the 300 residents living in this Maya village and will, in fact, quite literally cut it off from the rest of Mexico (Associated Press 2022). The train is set to cut through the one narrow dirt road that connects Vida y Esperanza to the highway, which would make any trip out of the area four times longer (Associated Press 2022). While the government has promised the construction of an overpass, residents are skeptical given the constant failure of the Mexican government to ensure the wellbeing of its Indigenous population. The train is going to be travelling at speeds of around 100 mph and will rush past the local elementary school, which most children walk to (Associated Press 2022). Another issue the train will likely cause for Vida y Esperanza is the solutions the Mexican government has proposed to deal with the underground caves that are in the area. The Yucatán Peninsula is a largely flat and dry area, so the only available source of water is in these underground caves or cenotes. The Mexican government is going to fill in some of these underground caves to increase the safety and stability of the train tracks, which runs the risk of contaminating the village’s only water source and has stirred up a large amount of criticism from the local population and activists (Associated Press 2022). This is just one of many small villages that are being impacted and put at risk by this megaproject.

Photo of the deforestation for the Tren Maya in Puerto Morales Mexico (Associated Press 2022)

Indigenous Struggles Exacerbated

To the layperson, making the connection between Mexico and colonialism may not be clear given the country’s more than 200 years of independence since Spanish colonial occupation. However, history shows us that colonialism has never cleanly left Mexico. The Tren Maya project serves as a strong testament to that. The subsuming of Indigenous voices into discourses of development allow the state of Mexico to prioritize economic value above other alternative forms of value (social, ecological, etc.). In a world of globalization, post-colonies like Mexico are pressured to subscribe to western notions of development. Rich western countries, like the U.S, possess an insatiable lust for consumption leading to long commodity chains in which the seemingly endless appetite of people living in the west are fed by inputs of labor and resources from people and countries far far away (McMichael 2011). In the end, it is usually post-colonial regions like Mexico where that labor is sourced, usually encouraged by “development agencies”, even if the costs of that development “[ecologically] overshoot” what is realistically sustainable by a given environment (McMichael 2011). And, while the project outwardly expresses the seemingly noble goal to create jobs and spur economic growth that might lift more than a million people out of poverty, it gives little consideration to the actual opinion on the ground of those who will be most affected by the project (Reuters 2023). More insultingly, the current government of Mexico claims approval to build the railway based on the results of a referendum that saw only a 2.86% turnout (Córdova 2019). What’s more, there is little evidence to suggest that the Mexican government took meaningful steps to seek proper consultation with Indigenous communities about the project (Carmago and Vázquez-Maguirre 2021). Despite the questionable referendum and its inadequate consultation with Indigenous communities, the government of Mexico has carried forward with the project and seems to be ignoring its subscription to the ILO Convention 169. This “establishes: “…the right of indigenous peoples to maintain and strengthen their cultures…” guaranteeing: “ownership of their lands, the natural resources of their territories, the preservation of their traditional knowledge, self-determination and prior consultation” (CONACYT 2019, 13).  Any decision that affects them must have their: “…free consent, prior and informed” (CONACYT 2019, 13). Blatantly ignoring the agency, opinions, and trust of the Indigenous community, the Mexican government has placed economic development above the environment (greatly valued by the Indigenous community) and potential economic risks such as competition with large hotels and restaurants and the erosion of Indigenous communal land (Carmago and Vázquez-Maguirre 2021).

Concept art of the train (Pérez Ortega and Gutiérrez Jaber 2022).

Identity Exoticized

But beyond development, how else might this project be understood? One helpful interpretation is through a concept developed by Edward Said, Orientalism. Said describes the conception of the Orient as “a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences” (Said 1978, 1). In a similar vein, the Mexican government has fetishized the historical idea of the Indigenous people of southern Mexico, placing that above the needs of the Indigenous peoples still alive today. This fetishization of Indigenous culture and identity in Mexico stems back to Mexico gaining its independence from Spain. In an effort to distinguish themselves from the Spanish, they adopted a combined and overgeneralized identity based on the many Indigenous groups that had been living in Mexico long before the Spanish conquest of the area (Navarrete 2011). 

The logo for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Archaeology and History) in Mexico (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia 2022).

From the outset, the Tren Maya project has been greatly motivated by a desire for increased tourism. In this way, the Mexican government is seeking to control the interpretation and narrative of traditional Maya culture, appropriating it for economic gain and national prestige despite concerns raised by activists and locals alike. Even the main supplier of train cars for the project has the audacity to name the different classes of its train cars after Mayan words calling them “Xiinbal” or “P’atal” and claiming to model the look of their trains as “inspired by the Mayan culture, in the majesty of the jaguar, as an endemic element of the region, in its elegance, speed and beauty” (ALSTOM 2023). The real and sacred cultural history of the Maya is commodified into nothing more than a mere trinket for western tourists.

The Indigenous peoples of Mexico have faced seemingly endless suffering and continue to have their rights infringed upon by those in power to this day. Ultimately, until dignity and respect for Indigenous communities is given priority, until neo-liberal concepts of “development” are transcended, and until the overdeveloped world learns to live within its means, issues like this will continue to appear in Mexico and globally.

References:

ALSTOM

2023. The Mayan Train Project. Web Page, https://www.alstom.com/mayan-train-project, accessed March 8, 2023.

Associated Press

2022. Mexico’s Maya Train Project Divides Maya People in its Path. The Washington Post, September 7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/09/07/mexicos-maya-train-project-divides-maya-people-its-path/, accessed March 7, 2023.

Camargo, Blanca A., and Mario Vázquez-Maguirre.

2021. “Humanism, dignity and indigenous justice: the Mayan train megaproject, Mexico.” Journal of Sustainable Tourism 29, no. 2-3: 372-391.

CONACYT

2019. Territorios Mayas en el Paso del Tren: Situación Actual y Riesgos Previsibles. Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible. https://www.ccmss.org.mx/acervo/territorios-mayas-en-el-paso-del-tren-situacion-actual-y-riesgos-previsibles/, accessed March 7, 2023.

Córdova, Osvaldo

2019. Solo votó el 2.86% del padrón por Tren Maya. Diario ContraRéplica, December 17. https://www.contrareplica.mx/nota-Solo-voto-el-286-del-padron-por-Tren-Maya-2019171249, accessed March 7, 2023.

Diaz Montemayor, Gabriel

2019. México quiere construir un tren en el corazón de la región Maya, ¿debería de hacerlo? The Conversation, August 27th. https://theconversation.com/mexico-quiere-construir-un-tren-en-el-corazon-de-la-region-maya-deberia-de-hacerlo-121861, accessed March 7, 2023.

Gobierno de Mexico

n.d. Tren Maya. Web Page, https://www.gob.mx/trenmaya, accessed March 7, 2023.

Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia

2022. ¿Quiénes somos? INAH, July 25. https://www.inah.gob.mx/quienes-somos, accessed March 8, 2023.

McMichael, Philip

2011. “Development and Globalization: Framing Issues.” In Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective, 1-22. Sage Publications, London.

Navarrete, Federico

2011. “Ruins and the State: Archaeology of a Mexican Symbiosis.” In Indigenous Peoples and Archaeology in Latin America, edited by C. Gnecco and P. Ayala, pp. 39-52. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA.

Pérez Ortega, Rodrigo, and Inés Gutiérrez Jaber

2022. “A controversial train heads for the Maya forest.” Science 375, no. 6578: 250-251. https://www.science.org/content/article/controversial-train-heads-maya-rainforest.

Said, Edward

1978. Orientalism. Vintage Books, New York, NY. 

Reuters

2023. Mexico’s Mayan Train critically threatens ancient, pristine areas, scientists warn. NBC, January 4. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexicos-mayan-train-threat-ancient-areas-scientists-warn-rcna64212, accessed March 7, 2023.

Categories
Correspondents Desks

Echoes of Colonialism and the History of the North Carolina Eugenics Board

Regina Lowe, Samuel Loyack, Madison Holt, Lindsay Simpson

Following the abolishment of slavery in the 19th century, issues of race had accelerated in the United States, particularly in North Carolina. During this period, scientific racism stemming from European colonial ideology, began guiding a novel and violent form of reproductive procedure known as eugenic sterilization that would later become a tool of the state to undermine the civil rights movement (Reilly, 2015). This era of eugenics in North Carolina would begin with the official legal enactment of eugenic sterilization in 1933 and efforts from this program would persist until the 1970s (Kaelber, 2009). The law would ultimately oversee the authorization and completion of the reproductive sterilization of thousands of women, disproportionately consisting of lower class and minority women. In this blog post, we examine the institutionalization of eugenics in North Carolina, explore science as a technology of colonialism and postcolonialism, and analyze how colonial science serves as the roots to eugenic sterilization. 

Science as a Technology of Colonialism

The use of scientific racism has undermined the notion of Revolution and Black power (Charles, 2020). In the United States, settler colonialism, slavery, and the race concept combine. Through a separation of the body from the self, Black bodies have been regulated and supervised in the colonial project. Settler colonialism is a process of engagement and negotiations, and this separation has allowed the Black body to be constantly transformed (Wolfe, 2001). Black bodies represent “states of transition on the colonial landscape” (King, 2019). Within the colonial landscape, Black bodies may be turned into labor or other manifestations of colonial power. The eugenics project seen in North Carolina sits in this seam of race and sexuality where individuals’ bodies are manipulated in order to progress the goals of the state.

The race concept in the United States has been promoted in a variety of ways with Anthropology having a contributing role. Founding concepts to race in anthropology surround essentialism and biological determinism. Essentialism corresponds with the idea that race was considered a manifestation of natural categories (Caspari, 2003). This kind of thinking has roots in European enlightenment: the natural world can be defined into distinct classes. 

From these distinct classes, decisions and assumptions about their behavior and capabilities form biological deterministic outcomes (Caspari, 2003).  The colonial state and its postcolonial partners use these examples to develop an idea of social darwinism. This idea rationalizes that hereditary differences, such as race, contribute to the evolutionary path of humans (Bashford, et al., 2010). Through this ideology, beliefs of racial superiority are reinforced and colonial practices are justified using a racial basis for domination. Race has functioned as a cornerstone of the coloniality of power and the use of racial difference as a function of power continued into the postcolonial landscape, as this perspective of racial superiority in combination with the scientific study of inheritance and genetics ultimately developed the rationale, support, and practice of eugenics.

Eugenics in North Carolina

Map of the number of forced sterilizations occurring at the peak of the Eugenics program in North Carolina by visualized by county. Appears in a brochure printed by the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation (“JS Brochure”).

North Carolina has a deep history with the use of eugenics, starting in 1933. One North Carolina county, Mecklenburg County, sterilized three times the amount of people than any other county. The North Carolina Eugenics Board, founded in 1933, was located in Mecklenburg county (Rose, 2011). The Eugenics Board sterilized nearly 7,600 people over its four decades of operation. The overwhelming majority of these people were Black women (Fowler, 2020). The identities and actual number of forced sterilization victims will never truly be known, as the N.C. Eugenics Board closed their records to the public. The Eugenics Board was quietly disbanded in 1974, following the legalization of abortion in the United States. 

By the 1960s, 60% of sterilized North Carolina residents were African American, while they only made up a quarter of the North Carolina population. 25% of the sterilized African Americans were deemed mentally ill (Sinderbrand, 2005). 

Duke Professor William A. Darity Jr. co-authored a report correlating the number of unemployed Black individuals with 10 recorded years of forced sterilizations all over the state of North Carolina. Darity Jr. stated that the Eugenics program was designed to “breed out” the Black residents. The paper suggests that “for Blacks, eugenic sterilizations were authorized and administered with the aim of reducing their numbers in the future population — genocide by any other name.” 

Darity Jr. also noted the United Nation’s definition of genocide, which is defined as “imposing measures to prevent births within a (national, ethnically, racial or religious) group.” “North Carolina’s disproportionate use of eugenic sterilization on its Black citizens was an act of genocide,” explains Darity Jr (Hubbard, 2020).

  • About 70 percent of those seeking sterilization were African American, in contrast to 38 percent of the overall caseload and about 30 percent of North Carolina’s population. 
  • Women seeking sterilization through the eugenic sterilization program were, on average, twenty-seven years old and had had four children at the time of the petition. Black women tended to have more children in a shorter time span (4.4 children compared to 3.4 children for white women) and sought sterilization at a younger age (at the age of 26.5 compared to 28 for white women). 
  • 43% of African American petitioners but only 28% of white petitioners had had five or more children at the time of their petition. Black women not only had greater difficulty gaining access to elective sterilizations but they also found it more difficult to obtain reliable contraceptive advice, leaving them with more children at a younger age and the eugenic sterilization program as their only alternative.

Subaltern View- Elaine Riddick

Elaine Riddick, survivor of North Carolina’s Eugenics Board forced sterilizations and outspoken advocate for women’s rights. Photo by Andy McMillan (McMillan).

Elaine Riddick is a survivor of North Carolina’s Eugenics Board forced sterilizations and outspoken advocate for women’s rights. At 13 years old, Riddick was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and consequently impregnated by a neighbor (“Who We Are”). Prior to giving birth, a social worker visited her home and discovered the pregnancy, at once coercing her illiterate grandmother, whom she was living with at the time, to sign a document giving the state permission to sterilize Riddick with threats of sending her to an orphanage if she did not comply (“Who We Are”). Although in reality a rape victim, the Eugenics Board of North Carolina deemed Riddick too “feebleminded” and “promiscuous” to bear the responsibility of ever having children, and in 1968, at fourteen years old, she was sterilized immediately after giving birth to her son, Tony (“Who We Are”). After giving birth, she reluctantly left her son in the care of her grandmother and went to live in New York with an aunt (Iraq, 2012). There, she met and married a man at 18, but was abused by him and later divorced him once he found out she was forcibly sterilized (Iraq, 2012).

Today, Elaine Riddick is happily remarried and living in Atlanta, still fighting for women’s rights to life, freedom, and happiness (Iraq, 2012). While 10 million dollars have been awarded to victims of state-mandated forced sterilizations, as Riddick puts it, “Fifty thousand dollars isn’t nearly enough to bury my pain…It’s shut-up-and-go-away money.” (Iraq, 2012). This is a reasonable accusation given that the state is not only excluding victims of private practice forced sterilizations from financial compensation, it is also barely putting forth any effort to educate the public on the history of the North Carolina Eugenics Board or adequately funding any programs that support minorities subject to racial discrimination and/or ableism. Riddick, on the other hand, has taken it upon herself to champion women’s rights by founding the Rebecca Project for Justice, a “transformational organization that advocates protecting life, dignity and freedom for people in Africa and the United States” and one that stands on the belief that “vulnerable women, girls and their families possess the right to live free of environmental, medical, physical and sexual violence.” (“Who We Are”). Elaine Riddick has also studied psychology at New York City Tech and was the Victims Coordinator for Attorney Wilie Gary’s class action lawsuit against Depo Provera, a form of birth control that has caused serious health complications and even death in women (“Who We Are”).

Overall, by pursuing a life in Atlanta with her second husband and pursuing an education to fight against the wrongdoings of the state of North Carolina, Riddick has demonstrated that humans have and will exhibit agency under colonialist regimes.

Bibliography

Bashford, Alison, and Philippa Levine, editors. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics. Oxford University Press, 2010, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195373141.001.0001.

Caspari, Rachel. “From Types to Populations: A Century of Race, Physical Anthropology, and the American Anthropological Association.” American Anthropologist, vol. 105, no. 1, Mar. 2003, pp. 65–76, https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2003.105.1.65.

Charles, Jean Max. “The Slave Revolt That Changed the World and the Conspiracy Against It: The Haitian Revolution and the Birth of Scientific Racism.” Journal of Black Studies, vol. 51, no. 4, May 2020, pp. 275–94, https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934720905128.

“JS Brochure.” Welcome to the Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims | NC DOA. https://ncadmin.nc.gov/about-doa/special-programs/welcome-office-justice-sterilization-victims. Accessed 1 Mar. 2023.

Iraq, David Zucchino. “Sterilized by North Carolina, She Felt Raped Once More.” Los Angeles Times, January 25, 2012. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2012-jan-25-la-na-forced-sterilization-20120126-story.html.

Kaelber, Lutz. “Eugenics: Compulsory Sterilization in 50 American States.” The University of Vermont. The University of Vermont, March 24, 2009. https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/NC/NCold.html.

King, Tiffany Lethabo. “At the Pores of the Plantation.” In The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies, 111–141. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

McMillan, Andy. “Photos: Survivors of North Carolina’s Eugenics Program.” Mother Jones, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/north-carolina-sterilization-eugenics-photos/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2023.

Fowler, H. NC Eugenics Program Tried to ‘Breed out’ Black People: Report | Raleigh News & Observer. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article244411987.html. Accessed 1 Mar. 2023.

Hubbard, L. New Paper Examines Disproportionate Effect of Eugenics on North Carolina’s Black Population. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-paper-disproportionate-effect-eugenics-north.html. Accessed 1 Mar. 2023.

Reilly, Philip R. “Eugenics and Involuntary Sterilization: 1907–2015.” Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, vol. 16, no. 1, Aug. 2015, pp. 351–68, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-genom-090314-024930.

Rose, Julie. “A Brutal Chapter In North Carolina’s Eugenics Past.” NPR, 28 Dec. 2011. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2011/12/28/144375339/a-brutal-chapter-in-north-carolinas-eugenics-past.

Sinderbrand, Rebecca. “A SHAMEFUL LITTLE SECRET.” Newsweek, 27 Mar. 2005, https://www.newsweek.com/shameful-little-secret-114565.

“Who We Are” Rebecca Project for Justice. https://rebeccaprojectjustice.org/who-we-are/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2023.

Wolfe, Patrick. “Land, Labor, and Difference: Elementary Structures of Race.” The American Historical Review, vol. 106, no. 3, 2001, pp. 866–905, https://doi.org/10.2307/2692330. JSTOR.

Categories
Correspondents Desks

Defiance of the “Delinquents”: How Violence Worked in Favor for Liberating Colonized Southeast Asia

By Erica Boey, Kaitlyn Dang, Tarleton Hunt, and Newton Wainscott

Violence is an integral part of the technologies of rule in colonialism. Enforcing violence was a means for the colonizer to exert control over culture to achieve hegemony in colonies. However, in the context of Southeast Asia, violence manifested itself as a prominent tool for the colonized to break free from oppressive colonial rule and the erasure of its successes as a nation-state. Southeast Asia is no stranger to revolts and violence. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam have endured years of immense oppression and violence under colonial rule. However, the colonized were not bystanders to their own struggles, instead, violent revolts and insurgencies have been a huge proponent in overcoming colonialism. 

Indonesia

The Dutch have left a haunting colonial legacy in Indonesia socially, economically, and culturally. Europeans like the Portuguese arrived in Indonesia in the 16th century seeking to monopolize spices like nutmeg, cloves, and Cubeb in Maluku. In 1602, the Dutch established the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and became the dominant European power in this region by 1610. In doing so, they successfully monopolized the Maluku spice trade and spurred brutal genocide of indigenous people to accomplish this. Motivated by the economic interests in monopolizing the spice trade, the Dutch used countless violent measures in order to reach and maintain their goals (Fathimah, F. A., 2018). The Dutch justified their atrocious actions by calling them a “civilizing mission” – believing the people of Indonesia were primitive and backwards and thought it was their “responsibility” to modernize them. After the Dutch arrived, many massacres occurred. In 1621, the Massacre of Burdanese took place. Jan Pieterszoon Coen led an expedition to the Banda Islands in which many natives were slaughtered, and the rest were enslaved and shipped off as slaves for labor elsewhere. Unfortunately, this was the first of many massacres in Indonesia. One of the more recent massacres occurred between October 1965 to March 1966. It is estimated that between 500,000 to 1,000,000 people were killed during the main period of violence (Kine, P., 2020). These atrocities, sometimes described as a genocide or politicide, were instigated by the Indonesian Army under Suharto. Indonesia declared its independence shortly before Japan’s surrender, but it required four years of sometimes brutal fighting, intermittent negotiations, and UN mediation before the Netherlands agreed to transfer sovereignty in 1949. Indonesia has endured centuries of extreme violence from its colonizers. With this, Indonesia retaliated with the only force they have been exposed to – violence. With Fanon’s words, “decolonization is always a violent event” (Fanon, 1963). Indonesia met their colonizer’s oppressive and brutal rule with equal violence for independence.

Malaysia

The prevalence of amok violence has shaped social life in the Malay peninsula for almost 150 years. During British colonial rule, instances of amok violence have been a hindrance to their colonial rule. The British defined amok violence as a behavioral pattern of indiscriminate, homicidal ‘tendencies’ purportedly observed among Malay Muslim men. The British believed that the presence of amok violence was the primitive character of a Malay man, capitalizing on these violent tendencies as uncivilized (Wu, 2017). Antagonizing amok violence became strategic propaganda of the “British Forward Movement”, this was further amplified when the British deemed the killing of British resident J.W.W Birch in the 1875 Pasir Salak rebellion as a form of amok violence (Williamson, 2007). Amok violence events were used in the colonial press that would circulate in English-speaking parts of Asia, making these cases a national, and to an extent, international phenomenon that would be ridiculed by the rest of society. The instances of “running amok” by the Malayan people were manipulated by the British in an attempt not only to further obtain their goal of colonial domination but to dehumanize the colonized. Indeed, amok is a mental condition in both historical and contemporary terms, but this violent behavior is a product of culture and environment.

Misconstrued during the British colonial period, the origins of amok violence as a result of colonial oppression have been silenced. The British occupation of Malaya propagated the poverty, hunger, and suffering of the Malayan people by increasing the prices and obscuring the accessibility of basic goods. The colonialists were the initiator of violence that ultimately sparked resistance to oppressive colonial rule (Fikri, 2022). The phrase “running amok” stems from the Malay word mengamok, which means furious and desperate change. Initially, British fascination with amok was deeply rooted in viewing the colonized as savages, and Malay men were innately pathologically disarrayed. However, when insurgencies threatened the sanctity of British colonial rule, it was deemed as an unnatural disturbance of manic and mania. Despite the brutality of amok violence, they were heroic and honorable acts that boosted the morale of the Malayan people during a time of severe oppression. The occurrence of amok violence is a form of defiance, both to colonial rule and the master-slave dialectic, where the colonized, channeled the years of trauma from oppression to overcome the projections of recognition set by their colonialists. Despite violence’s significant role in Malaya’s liberation from the British, it eventually sparked racial fractures in the multiethnic nation, which led to internal conflicts and divides with implications beyond reparations. 

Vietnam

Ever since the arrival of imperial French powers in the mid-17th century, Vietnam has always resisted against her colonizers—win or lose. From the failed resistance movement led by Phan Din Phung in 1885 to the establishment of the Viet Minh in Hanoi after the surrender of Japan in 1945, the colonized people of Vietnam are well familiar with fighting for their liberation, by all means necessary. Through decades of exploitation, land displacement, and illegal ownership of plantations and industrial enterprises by the hands of the French, Vietnamese peasants turned to national resistance movements toward liberation. The educated minority saw the social consequence of French colonial policy within their own communities, that, apart from landlords, no previous property-owning indigenous middle class developed in colonial Vietnam. Like most colonial rulers, driven by economic welfare rather than social, French colonizers ignored the real cause of the anti-colonial struggle—the desire of the Vietnamese people to achieve independence for their country (Zinoman, 2001). There had been multiple anti-colonial attempts to drive out the French but the only one that was truly successful was Ho Chi Minh’s leadership of the Viet Minh, seizing power in one of the largest territories of Northern Vietnam away from the French and their Japanese allies at the end of World War II. However, the French still aimed to reestablish colonial rule, while the Vietnamese in Hanoi wanted total independence. In 1949, the French sought to reunite Cochinchina with the rest in Vietnam, proclaiming it the Associated State of Vietnam. Vietnamese nationalists denounced these claims, resulting in an increasingly successful guerrilla war waged by the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, a previous French-held garrison. In 1954, the French agreed to an end of the war and their colonial hold over Vietnam. 

Afraid of the rise of communism in the North, the United States, at this point in their cause against the Soviet Union, placed their global standing with South Vietnam, aiding alongside anti-communist leaders. The U.S. was just as naive as the French in believing that the Vietnamese—communist or not—would surrender to this new, foreign global power. The rise of Vietnamese nationalists and communists in the South aided in the U.S’s struggling battle, guerilla soldiers unbothered by the military strength. Civilians burned themselves alive out of protest. Even after the U.S poured rainbow herbicide on their country for years, the Vietnamese continued to use large-scale violence against soldiers and civilians to drive the U.S out, which they eventually did after the Tet Offensive in 1969. The Vietnamese attitude toward the conflict may be induced from this evidence. The willingness shared by millions of Vietnamese to continue their struggle in the midst of constant destruction indicates their priorities of the revolution to risk annihilation to secure its success (Swanson, 1973).  

What these countries have in common against their colonizers is that they recognize the destruction their decision of violence has placed on their country. But they accept it as an inevitable consequence of their journey toward justice, for “violence is a cleansing force.” Through violence, as Franz Fanon argues, it frees the native from his despair and inaction, making him fearless and restoring his self-respect.

Sources:

Exeter, C. I. G. H. (2022, March 11). Dutch colonial violence and the missing voices of Indonesians. Imperial & Global Forum. Retrieved February 28, 2023, from https://imperialglobalexeter.com/2022/03/14/dutch-colonial-violence-and-the-missing-voices-of-indonesians/

Fanon, Frantz (1963) “On Violence” The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press 1-62

Fathimah, F. A. (2018, September). The Extractive Institutions as Legacy of Dutch Colonialism in Indonesia: A historical Case Study. Retrieved from www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1285721/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Fikri, F. D. (2022). Unveiling the Violence of the British Imperialist War in Malaya: Chin Peng’s My Side of History. Liberated Text. https://liberatedtexts.com/reviews/unveiling-the-violence-of-the-british-imperialist-war-in-malaya-chin-peng-my-side-of-history/

Kine, P. (2020, October 28). Indonesia again silences 1965 massacre victims. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved February 28, 2023, from https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/07/indonesia-again-silences-1965-massacre-victims

Swanson, Dan. (1973). Revolutionary Violence: The Lessons of Vietnam. The Harvard Crimson. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/10/revolutionary-violence-the-lessons-of-vietnam/

Williamson, T.  (2007). Communicating Amok in Malaysia, Identities, 14:3, 341-365, DOI: 10.1080/10702890601163144

Wu, J.C. (2018). Disciplining Native Masculinities: Colonial Violence in Malaya, ‘Land of the Pirate and the Amok’. In: Dwyer, P., Nettelbeck, A. (eds) Violence, Colonialism and Empire in the Modern World. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62923-0_9

Zinoman, P. (2001). The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940. Univ of California Press.

Categories
Correspondents Desks

The Afterlives of Colonialism: The Haitian Debt Crisis

By: Kayla McManus-Viana, Kannu Taylor, and Ahmed El-Halabi

A significant event in both Haitian and global history was the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), which was a successful rebellion of enslaved Africans and Afro-Caribbeans against their French oppressors and resulted in the island of Haiti achieving formal independence in 1804.1 In this blog post, we will explore the following question: Did the Haitian Revolution provide Haiti with “true” decolonial liberation if it was forced to pay its former colonizer reparations, which kept Haiti locked in a subordinate, “colonial” position for over a century after its “independence”?

Technologies of Colonialism and Coloniality

By technologies of colonialism, we are referring to the tools – physical, scientific, intellectual, cultural, social, etc. – wielded by colonizers to transform the world at global, regional, local, and individual scales. In this blog post, we are specifically concerned with the tool of economic domination/capitalism.

Historical research demonstrates that contemporary “underdevelopment” is in large part the historical product of colonial and continuing economic exploitation of the “underdeveloped” Global South (made up largely of former colonies) by the now “developed,” metropolitan Global North (consisting largely of former colonizers). This exploitative relationship has been an essential part of the structure, development, and maintenance of the global capitalist system as a whole.2 In the case of Haiti, though the island was able to break-free of colonialism proper, capitalism and debt were used as a technology of continuing colonial control/power relations (i.e. “coloniality”) by France even after formal colonization ended, which has resulted in the island being viewed as chronically “underdeveloped,” impoverished, and in a perpetual state of crisis.  

The History of the Haitian Debt Crisis

On April 17, 1825, King Charles X decreed that France would recognize Haiti’s independence if and only if the Haitian state compensated the French colonists for their “lost revenues from slavery” – to the tune of 150 million francs (which, for comparison, was around “10 times the amount the U.S. had paid for the Louisiana territory”).3 There was very little room for Haiti to negotiate or resist the imposition of this bill as Baron de Mackau, the individual whom Charles X sent to deliver the ordinance, “arrived in Haiti… accompanied by a squadron of 14 brigs of war carrying more than 500 cannons” (emphasis added).4 Under the threat of (yet another) war, the then-Haitian president Jean-Pierre Boyer agreed to pay “in five equal installments … the sum of 150,000,000 francs, destined to indemnify the former colonists.”5 Through this action Haiti gained immunity from French military invasion and relief from political and economic isolation – but was saddled with a crippling debt that took 122 years to pay off. Though this debt was eventually settled in 1947, “decades of making regular payments rendered the Haitian government chronically insolvent, helping to create a pervasive climate of instability from which the country still hasn’t recovered.”6 

We argue that through the imposition of unreasonable reparations (part of the technology of economic domination) France was able to maintain a colonial relationship with Haiti, which is directly responsible for Haiti’s current position in the global world order and a continuation of its former “formal” colonial subjugation. 

Interestingly, the weaponization of capitalism and debt was not only utilized by Haiti’s former colonizer but also by the United States. In 1915, the U.S. military invaded Haiti under the guise of “keeping the peace” in America’s “backyard.” In reality, U.S. Marines would remain on the island for almost twenty years (until 1934) protecting the interests of Wall Street, specifically the National City Bank of New York (aka Citibank).7 The National City Bank of New York would go on to completely control the National Bank of Haiti and reap significant gains from this endeavor – to such a degree that James Weldon Johnson, a representative from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, argued in 1920, “to understand why the United States landed and has for five years maintained military forces in that country, why some three thousand Haitian men, women, and children have been shot down by American rifles and machine guns, it is necessary, among other things, to know that the National City Bank of New York is very much interested in Haiti.”8 Here, Johnson is putting forth the contention – with which contemporary historians agree – that the U.S’s occupation of Haiti was motivated by economic interests more so than any “strategic” military or diplomatic concerns. This argument is further supported by one of Johnson’s contemporaries, Smedley Butler, a former general in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1933, Butler claimed, “During that period [the U.S. occupation of Haiti], I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism…I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street” (emphasis added).9

Conclusion

The histories of Haiti, France, and the United States are intertwined through the shared experience of colonialism and the weaponization of capitalism. The Haitian Revolution, while an incredible achievement in the fight against slavery and colonialism, was met with economic sanctions that would burden the country with a significant and crippling debt for over a century. This debt, along with the subsequent military occupation of Haiti by the United States, was driven by economic interests and resulted in a state of “coloniality” for Haiti.  This history highlights the ways in which colonial powers have used economic systems to maintain control and exploit the resources of colonized nations even after colonialism ends. Moreover, it underscores the importance of understanding the legacies of colonialism and how they continue to shape our world today. Only by acknowledging and grappling with this complex history can we hope to build a more just and equitable future to fully practice decolonization.

Questions from the Desk:

  1. So what do you think: Did the Haitian Revolution provide Haiti with “true” decolonial liberation if it was forced to pay its former colonizer reparations?
  2. What constitutes “true” decolonial liberation?
    1. What can be done to assist formerly colonized nations finding their place in the current world order? 
    2. What is the role of violence in decolonial liberation?
  3. How many of us found out about Haiti’s debt crisis (read: coerced reparations to France) and the US’s intervention through The New York Times exposé published in 2022? How does this relate to “the problem of history”?
  4. Where else do we see the continued use of economic systems to maintain control and exploit the resources of (formerly) colonized nations even after “formal” colonization ends? 

Footnote Citations

  1. Claudia Sutherland, “Haitian Revolution (1791-1804),” BlackPast, July 16, 2007. https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/haitian-revolution-1791-1804/.
  2.  Lucile H. Brockway, “The British Empire,” in Science and Colonial Expansion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979).
  3. Marlene Daunt, “When France extorted Haiti – the greatest heist in history,” National African American Reparations Committee, June 17, 2022. https://reparationscomm.org/reparations-news/when-france-extorted-haiti-the-greatest-heist-in-history/.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Ibid.
  6.  Dan Sperling, “In 1825, Haiti Paid France $21 Billion To Preserve Its Independence — Time For France To Pay It Back,” Forbes, December 6, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2017/12/06/in-1825-haiti-gained-independence-from-france-for-21-billion-its-time-for-france-to-pay-it-back/?sh=24dbd777312b.
  7. Peter James Hudson, “The National City Bank of New York and Haiti, 1909–1922,” Radical History Review 115 (Winter 2013): 91-92.
  8. Hudson, 92.
  9.  David Suggs, “The long legacy of the U.S. occupation of Haiti,” The Washington Post, August 6, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/08/06/haiti-us-occupation-1915/.
Categories
Correspondents Desks

“Exploring the Duality of Scottish Independence: Scotland’s Role as Both Colonizer and Colonized”

By: Ila and Katelin

With an ever-growing body of post-colonialist thought surrounding European colonization of non-European entities, it is important to reflect inward to see how such nations have and continue to colonize peoples within their own borders. In the case of Scotland, independence has been, and continues to be, a centuries-long dilemma. Through which England’s rule has controlled national identity and expression, as witnessed through the erasure of the laird system and outlawing of various cultural practices. However, the history of Scottish colonization is anything but clear-cut. Throughout its history, it has carried out its own forms of colonial rule, with the encroachment on Indigenous territory in North America and the Darien Scheme serving as but two examples. From this, we must ask ourselves how to contextualize Scotland as a subject of colonization. In what ways has colonization been forced upon Scotland? What technologies perpetrated its rule? How did Scotland use these technologies to colonize other peoples? What is the state of Scottish existence today? How should we go about reconciling Scotland’s place as both a colonized and colonizing entity?

Scotland as colonized

While Scotland was first declared as a feudal dependency of England in the late 13th century, active oversight by the English crown and its subjugation under the “imperial” throne of “Great Britain” was not imposed until 1603. Since then, several failed rebellions against the British Empire resulted in legislation intended to culturally erase Scottish heritage and establish hegemony with the English governing body. Through the Statues of Iona and Heritable Jurisdictions Act 1746, the British government dismantled the Highlands chiefdoms, disenfranchised the Scottish judicial system, and outlawed tartan and kilts, the speaking of Gaelic, and several other cultural practices.[1] However, by far, one of the most insidious practices was the control of presumably neutral industries for the enforcement of colonial rule. Similar to the Nil Darpan Affair, the British government systematically targeted and abolished anti-colonial media in order to force civil opinion, at least superficially, in favor of the colonialist regime.[2] From this existed “the relation between the state and those relatively autonomous institutions of public life that are supposed to constitute the domain of civil society.” [3]

Scotland as colonizer

While Scotland may have a deep history of subjugation under the British Empire and the systems of colonization which went with it, “Scotland itself became an imperial nation within the British state.” [4] Most notably with the spread and influence of Scottish colonists throughout North America during the 18-19th century and the Darién Scheme. In North America, the purchase of land surveyed by the English planted newly arriving Scottish colonists on land occupied by Native Americans, who were then dispossessed of their territory.[5] In North Carolina, Cherokee, Tuscarora, and Lumbee are some of the surviving nations who directly experienced Scottish colonization.[6] Furthermore, Scottish educators and missionaries established “assimilative efforts among Native Americans” as traders and merchants skewed markets in their favor.[7] While these actions may not have been directly sanctioned by the Scottish Parliament, it can still be said that many Scots found advancement in the British Empire, became avid colonizers themselves, and forged new opportunities” through colonization.[8]

[9]

Avenues of Settlement

While bottom-up colonization remained prevalent throughout North America, top-down colonization was also prevalent. The attempted establishment of New Caledonia on the Isthmus of Panama, commonly referred to as the Darién Scheme, serves as an instance of state-organized colonialism by the Kingdom of Scotland. From 1698-1700 the established Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies, a rival to the English East India Company, sanctioned and funded expeditionary efforts to establish a colony at Darién in Panama for the purposes of establishing military and economic control of the region.[10] While famine and Spanish military intervention resulted in the colony’s failure, it still stands as one of the most blatant examples of a Scottish state-organized colonial effort.

Furthermore, the Darién scheme and North American enterprises serve as two examples of Scottish colonization, as evidenced by colonial efforts in the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa; they are by no means stand-alone phenomena.[11] From this arises several questions. As subjects of the British Empire, to what degree should Scottish colonialism be separated from that of its colonizer? What degree of agency should be afforded to Scottish colonists themselves, the institutions they represented, and the state that oversaw it all? As Scotland seeks referendums for its own independence, how, if at all, should its colonial history bear influence?

21st-century independence movements

Over half a decade after the Brexit referendum and what many, including the present prime minister, described as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity,” there has been some discussion surrounding the mobilization of indyref2, another referendum. Originally, the people of Scotland had voted 55-45 in 2014 to stay in the UK, but this was prior to Brexit.[12] As a result of Brexit, the prevalence of economic, trade, education, and government harm has increased in Scotland. Yet from an article published this past November, statistics show split support for indyref2, with 49% supporting independence and 51% against it when “don’t know” votes are included.[13] With further complications coming from a recent supreme court case stating that Scotland cannot unilaterally hold a second referendum, pro-independence parties view this as a block to Scottish democracy. The current prime minister Nicola Sturgeon stated on Twitter that “A law that doesn’t allow Scotland to choose our own future without Westminster consent exposes as myth any notion of the UK as a voluntary partnership & makes (a) case” for independence.”[14] Yet she hasn’t lost hope for the referendum and believes that the 2025 election cycle will be a single-issue vote for independence.[15] However, the prevailing political climate surrounding the furtherance of the referendum is generally pessimistic, with the odds of people being swayed one way or the other unlikely, with fewer undecided voters now than there were in 2014.

Protestors Rallying in Support for Indyref2

[16]

In the past, the unique history of Scotland as both a colonizer and the colonized has shaped Scottish society in a way that is dissimilar to any other to nearly any other place in the world. Scotland’s past as a colonizer and the colonized continues to permeate society through language, religion, and art, as it is a mixture of what has been imposed on the Scottish people and what has been taken via imperialism. This creates significant issues when it comes to complicated ties between Scotland and the UK, especially financially, as Scotland would be under no legal bounds to bear the weight of the UK’s debt following independence. Yet the supreme court ruling in November barred most hope of independence at least until 2025. We will likely continue to see Scotland separating itself from the UK in other ways by not giving into Westminster whims and continuing to rally in support for a second referendum until the next election in 2025, where the now prime minister believes that the referendum could gain some real traction.

[1] Tom M. Devine, Clanship to Crofters’ War: The social transformation of the Scottish Highlands, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 11-17; Michael Lynch, Scotland: a New History (London; Pimlico, 1992) 304.

[2] Partha Chatterjee, “The Colonial State” in The Nation and Its Fragments (Princeton: Princeton University Press; 2003) 22.

[3] Partha Chatterjee, “The Colonial State” in The Nation and Its Fragments, 22.

[4] Colin Galloway, “‘Have the Scotch no Claim upon the Cherokees?’ Scots, Indians and Scots Indians in the American South,” in Global migrations; the Scottish diaspora since 1600 (Edinburgh; Edinburgh University Press, 2017), 77.

[5] Charles R. Holloman, “John Lawson 1674-1711,” in Documenting the American South, UNC press, accessed February 6, 2023, https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/lawson/bio.html.

[6] Colin Galloway, “‘Have the Scotch no Claim upon the Cherokees?’,” in Global migrations, 78.

[7] Colin Galloway, “‘Have the Scotch no Claim upon the Cherokees?’,” in Global migrations, 77.

[8] Colin Galloway, “‘Have the Scotch no Claim upon the Cherokees?’,” in Global migrations, 77.

[9] David Goldfield, “Early Settlement,” NCpedia, October 2022, https://www.ncpedia.org/history/colonial/early-settlement

[10] Dennis Hidalgo, “To Get Rich for Our Homeland: The Company of Scotland and the Colonizaiton of the Darién,”Colonial Latin American Historical Review (2001): 5.

[11] Angela McCarthy and John MacKenzie, “Introduction Global Migrations: The Scottish Diaspora since 1600” in Global migrations; the Scottish diaspora since 1600 (Edinburgh; Edinburgh University Press, 2017), 20.

[12] Meilan Solly, “A Not-So-Brief History of Scottish Independence,” Smithsonian Magazine, January 30, 2020. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/brief-history-scottish-independence-180973928/.

[13] BBC News, “Scottish Independence: Will There Be a Second Referendum?,” November 23, 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-50813510.

[14] Rob Picheta, “Scotland Blocked from Holding Independence Vote by UK’s Supreme Court.” CNN, November 23, 2022. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/23/uk/scottish-indepedence-court-ruling-gbr-intl/index.html.

[15] Rob Picheta, “Scotland Blocked from Holding Independence Vote by UK’s Supreme Court.”

[16]Petere Davidson, “Scottish Independence Supporters to Consider Holding Indyref2 Protests in London.” Daily Record, May 27, 2021. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/scottish-independence-supporters-consider-holding-24197271.